Only Prime Minister’s photo on vaccination certificate while rest responsibility on states: Priyanka Gandhi
In a scathing assault towards the Centre over the scarcity of Covid vaccines, Congress chief Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Wednesday alleged that vaccines in India had been a way for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “personal publicity” moderately than a device to avoid wasting individuals’s lives.
This was so from the start of the pandemic, the Congress normal secretary mentioned in posts on Twitter and Facebook. She additionally alleged that the Modi authorities has pushed the nation right into a “swamp of vaccine shortage” and left India, the world’s largest vaccine producer, dependent on vaccine donations from different nations.
Accusing the Centre of shifting the onus of vaccination on to states, Priyanka Gandhi mentioned there’s now solely Prime Minister Modi’s photo on the vaccination certificate while the rest of the responsibility has been put on the states.
Â
“Today, the chief ministers of states are sending messages to the Central government over the lack of vaccines,” she mentioned in Hindi.
Her sharp assault on the federal government on the difficulty got here as a part of her ‘Zimmedaar Kaun?’ (who’s accountable) marketing campaign, asking questions of the federal government on behalf of the individuals over its dealing with of the coronavirus pandemic.
On August 15 final 12 months, the prime minister mentioned in a speech from the Red Fort that his authorities has ready a whole plan for vaccination, she posted. Given India’s historical past of vaccine manufacturing and the vastness of its vaccine programmes, it was simple to consider that the federal government would do that work in a greater approach, Priyanka Gandhi added.
“After all, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru gave flight to India’s vaccine programme by setting up a vaccine unit in Chennai in 1948 and the National Institute of Virology, Pune, in 1952. We successfully defeated diseases like smallpox, polio etc. Later, India started exporting vaccines to the world and today it is the largest vaccine producer in the world,” she famous.
Knowing these achievements, the nation was certain that the individuals of India wouldn’t face issues in vaccination towards COVID-19, Priyanka Gandhi mentioned.
“But the bitter truth is that from the beginning of the pandemic, vaccines in India became a tool for the prime minister’s personal publicity rather than a tool to save the lives of the common people,” the Congress chief alleged.
“As a result, India, the world’s largest vaccine producer, has today become dependent on vaccine donations from other countries and has joined the ranks of the world’s weakest countries in terms of vaccination. Why did this happen and who is responsible,” she requested.
Accusing the federal government of sustaining a sluggish price of vaccination, Priyanka Gandhi mentioned solely 11 per cent of India’s 130 crore inhabitants has acquired the primary dose of vaccine towards Covid and solely 3 per cent have been totally vaccinated.
According to her, “vaccination declined by 83 per cent in the last one month after the announcement of Modi’s ‘Teeka Utsav’.” The authorities’s “failed” vaccine coverage seems to be behind the vaccine scarcity, she alleged.
Priyanka Gandhi mentioned giant nations of the world ordered vaccines many occasions their inhabitants final 12 months, however the Modi authorities positioned the primary order in January 2021, that too for just one.6 crore vaccine doses.
Noting that between January-March this 12 months, the Modi authorities despatched 6.5 crore vaccine doses overseas, Priyanka Gandhi mentioned the federal government additionally gifted free vaccines to many nations. At that point, solely 3.5 crore individuals had gotten vaccinated in India, she mentioned.
“From May 1, the government opened the doors to give vaccination to about 60 crore population in the age group of 18-44, but gave orders for only 28 crore vaccine doses, with which it is possible to vaccinate only 14 crore.”
She additionally posed a sequence of questions for the federal government, asking why it ordered just one.6 crore vaccines in January 2021 when, in keeping with the prime minister’s assertion, his authorities was prepared with the whole plan for vaccination final 12 months.
“Why did Modi ji’s government send more vaccines abroad, while vaccinating less people in India?” “Why is India, the world’s largest vaccine producer, today in a position that it has to ask for vaccines from other countries, and why is this shameless government trying to present it as an achievement?” she mentioned in one other poser.
Questions should be requested in order that the individuals in energy perceive their responsibility and accountability in direction of this nation, Priyanka Gandhi had asserted while asserting her ‘Zimmedaar Kaun’ marketing campaign on Tuesday.
The Congress has been crucial of the Centre’s dealing with of the Covid state of affairs within the nation, however the authorities has dismissed the criticism of the Opposition celebration, accusing it of politicising the pandemic.
READ MORE: Two new medicine developed to forestall, deal with Covid-19 an infection
